01732 759725
INTERVIEW
12
Print.IT Reseller
: Can you
briefly explain what TVP is?
Chris Cowell:
TVP is a transparent
business print solution. It gives customers a
single cost per print, for an agreed number
of prints. This cost, which we bill in advance,
covers all associated costs including
equipment hire, service and consumables
for an entire print fleet, over the lifetime of
a contract.
We define a contract’s ‘lifetime’ a
little differently. For us, the lifetime of
a print contract is not five years, or any
other arbitrary period of time: instead,
it’s determined by the useful life of the
equipment. Typically, this is around 42
months into a standard five-year contract.
PITR:
What trends/insight from
the market led you to develop
this product?
CC:
We actually first launched TVP in
2001, albeit in a more simplistic form, and
it was way ahead of its time. At that point,
dealers were focussed on transactional
sales. The digital age, market convergence
and the subsequent shift towards providing
solutions and services were still a long
way off: selling products via a total volume
product based on a fixed cost per copy was
really quite revolutionary then.
Given where the market is today, with
the bulk of new business won on a dealer’s
ability to provide a complete end-to-end
managed print solution incorporating
much more than the hardware, TVP is more
relevant than ever. While it was a basic
financing option in the early days, it’s much
more comprehensive today. We’ve evolved
it so the fixed cost per copy captures all
costs associated with the MPS contract,
which now includes software solutions
and even installation and training costs, if
required; it’s scalable, from one device to
many hundreds; and it’s flexible so any new
printers added to the fleet can be built into
the plan.
We firmly believe that TVP is the best
way to deliver print services to customers.
PrintIT Reseller
asks Chris Cowell, Sales Director of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions,
about the firm’s Total Volume Plan (TVP) and how it can help dealers to build
better, longer lasting customer relationships.
Ahead of the curve
Chris Cowell,
sales director,
BNP Paribas
Leasing Solutions
With a Total
Volume Plan,
the customer
can budget
ahead, enjoy
better cost
control
and cross
charge usage
internally.
We’ve seen an uptake in demand, in
particular from IT companies that want to
grow their business in the print sector and
from office equipment resellers who have
expanded their business and employed
IT specialists to manage clients’ more
complex requirements. The beauty of
this product is that it isn’t structured
to simply finance the hardware costs.
PITR:
How do customers
benefit from a TVP plan
compared to a standard
finance plan?
CC:
A customer in the middle of
a standard five-year contract faced
with a fleet that’s come to the end
of its useful life and needs regular
maintenance visits to keep it in good
working order has two choices. They
either pay a costly settlement for the
remainder of the contract, often
Continued...
BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions
Total Volume Plan
